1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal displaying, and in particular to a mold frame for curved displaying and a manufacturing method thereof and a curved liquid crystal display device using same.
2. The Related Arts
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have a variety of advantages, such as thin device body, low power consumption, and being free of radiation, and are thus of wide applications, such as liquid crystal televisions, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, computer monitors, and notebook computer screens.
Most of the liquid crystal displays that are currently available in the market are backlighting liquid crystal displays, which comprise an enclosure, a liquid crystal panel arranged in the enclosure, and a backlight module mounted in the enclosure. The backlight modules can be classified in two types, namely a side-edge backlight module and a direct backlight module, according to the site where light gets incident. The direct backlight module comprises a backlight source, such as a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a light-emitting diode (LED), which is arranged at the backside of the liquid crystal panel so that the light is homogenized by passing through a diffusion plate to form a planar light source supplied to the liquid crystal panel. The side-edge backlight module comprises an LED light bar, serving as a backlight source, which is arranged at an edge of a backplane to be located rearward of one side of the liquid crystal panel. The LED light bar emits light that enters a light guide plate (LGP) through a light incident face at one side of the light guide plate and is projected out of a light emergence face of the light guide plate, after being reflected and diffused, to pass through an optic film assembly so as to form a planar light source for the liquid crystal panel.
Recently, with the progress of the liquid crystal displaying technology, major manufacturers have marketed curved liquid crystal display devices one after another. Generally speaking, the curved liquid crystal display devices allow for the best viewing effect from edge to edge, while a regular liquid crystal display device has generally poor capability of displaying at edges of a screen. The curved liquid crystal display devices have a screen that has a curved design to provide an effect of wide full-view image, allowing for the same visual enjoyment at both the central portion or the circumferential portion of the screen and also reducing distortion of off-axis viewing for viewing at a short distance. Further, the curved liquid crystal display device allows a viewer's viewing distance to be extended, achieving better experience of viewing. Thus, compared to the regular liquid crystal display devices, the curved liquid crystal display devices have advantages, including: (1) brand differentiating, (2) wider viewable angle, and (3) reducing distortion for short distance viewing.
Heretofore, a curved liquid crystal display device is manufactured in such a way that the liquid crystal display panel and the light guide plate and the optical film assembly of the backlight module are all made in curved forms. To accommodate the above-mentioned curved optical components, a curved frame made of steel or other materials is fixed to a flat backplane to forcibly curve the backplane. Also, a curved bezel is adopted to fix the curved liquid crystal display panel and a curved mold frame is used to fix the optical film assembly and support the curved liquid crystal display panel.
The mold frame is made of a plastic material through injection molding. The curved mold frame has a relatively complicated structure and this makes the design and manufacture of the injection mold thereof complicated. Further, the filling, shaping, and mold releasing operations of the injection molding process are difficult, making the curved mold frame hard to manufacture and the manufacturing cost high. After the completion of production through injection molding, it is also hard to carry out precise inspection of the dimensions of the curve of the mold frame, thereby leading to low yield rate of the final product and the quality not reliably secured.